Obama Eases Restrictions on Travel to Cuba, Remittances
President Barack Obama will ease travel restrictions to Cuba, allowing educational and church groups greater freedom to visit the communist country.
The plans announced today will allow higher education institutions to sponsor travel to Cuba for course work, a White House statement said. American citizens will also be allowed to send as much as $500 every three months to Cuban citizens who aren’t part of the Castro administration or members of the Communist Party, it said.
“The President believes these actions, combined with the continuation of the embargo, are important steps in reaching the widely shared goal of a Cuba that respects the basic rights of all its citizens,” the statement said.
The new travel policy, which won’t end the U.S. trade embargo that has been in place since 1962, will lift restrictions put in place by President George W. Bush and are similar to rules under President Bill Clinton. Obama first loosened travel rules on Cuba in 2009, making it easier for Cuban-Americans to visit and send money to relatives on the Caribbean island.
The plan will also allow any U.S. international airport with customs and immigration facilities to offer charter service to Cuba, the statement said.
Obama doesn’t need congressional approval for changes in existing travel regulations.
‘Overdue’
Current rules allow U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba on educational and cultural trips if they are students or employees at qualifying universities and meet a set of additional requirements, such as doing research toward a graduate degree. All Cuba travel must be approved by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
“This is long overdue,” said Christopher Sabatini, policy director of the Council of the Americas business group, in a phone interview. “This is the way you break down mistrust and build human contact and understanding.”
Sabatini said that since Republicans won midterm elections in November, there is “very little appetite” in congress to move forward initiatives that would allow any U.S. citizen to travel to Cuba.
U.S. lawmakers said in 2009 and 2010 that they expected to pass legislation ending the 47-year ban that forbids most Americans from visiting the Caribbean island.
Policy Shifts
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who took over leadership of the House Foreign Affairs committee this month, said the changes announced today undermine U.S. foreign policy because they will bring economic benefits to the communist Cuban government.
“Loosening these regulations will not help foster a pro- democracy environment in Cuba,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. “And they certainly will not help the Cuban people free themselves from the tyranny that engulfs them.”
The change in U.S. policy toward the Cuban government follows President Raul Castro’s announcement in September that the government would dismiss 500,000 state workers and encourage them to go into business for themselves.
The communist island is facing its worst economic slump since the former Soviet Union ended support in the 1990s.
Castro
Castro, 79, has initiated other measures to open the economy, including loosening of property laws and controls prohibiting private enterprise such as taxi and mobile phone companies. The state still controls 90 percent of the economy.
In August, the government eased controls that prohibited Cubans from selling their own fruit and vegetables.
It also extended lease periods to 99 years from 50 years for foreign investors in an effort to build up tourism infrastructure and draw more visitors to the Caribbean island of 11.4 million people.
Castro also announced last year that the government would release 52 political prisoners who were imprisoned in 2003 during a crackdown on dissidents. Raul succeeded his 83-year-old brother Fidel in 2008.
Travel and trade restrictions on Cuba have been adjusted by nearly every U.S. administration since then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower established trade limits in 1960, following Fidel’s revolution against the U.S.-backed Batista regime.
Bush in 2003 banned some educational exchanges not directly related to academic coursework, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
‘Open the Way’
The U.S. exported $532 million worth of goods to Cuba in 2009, most of it wheat, corn, meat and other farm goods. That total could be higher if rules governing cash payments were made simpler, U.S. farm groups say.
Groups such as the United States Tour Operators Association and the National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based organization of companies and trade associations, have called for a repeal of the travel ban, which is designed to isolate the Castro regime and keep hard currency out of the country.
Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said in an interview last year that 1 million U.S. tourists might visit the island annually if the ban on travel is ended.
Democratic Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, applauded Obama’s announcement today, saying it will “open the way for the good will of citizens of both countries to forge deeper ties that are in our national interest today and in the future.”
Kerry, of Massachusetts, said he would continue pushing legislation to allow free travel to Cuba.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jens Erik Gould at jgould9@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
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